Cheng Nan-jung

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Cheng Nan-jung ( Chinese  鄭南榕 , Pinyin Zhèng Nánróng , Pe̍h-ōe-jī Tēⁿ Lâm-iông , called Nylon Deng ; born September 12, 1947 in Taipei , Republic of China (Taiwan) ; † April 7, 1989 ibid) was a Taiwanese Publisher and civil rights activist who campaigned for democracy, freedom of expression and an independent Taiwan and who himself burned to death in April 1989 in protest against his impending arrest by the Kuomintang dictatorship.

Cheng Nan-jung

youth

Cheng's father was a Mainland Chinese ( Waishengren ) and his mother was from Keelung , Taiwan . Cheng was therefore sensitive from an early age to the social tensions between the Chinese who immigrated as a result of the Chinese civil war with the Kuomintang and the residents of Taiwan ( Benshengren , see also the incident of February 28, 1947 ). He studied engineering at Cheng Kung National University in Tainan and philosophy at Fu-Jen University and Taiwan National University . Since he refused to attend the compulsory courses in Sun Yat-sens philosophy (the state doctrine during the Kuomintang dictatorship), he was not given a diploma.

Publisher and activist

After completing his military service and various professional activities in business, Cheng worked as a freelance publicist from 1981 and wrote for various magazines. In March 1984, together with Li Ao and Chen Shuibian, he founded the weekly magazine Epoch der Freiheit (Chinese 自由 時代Ziyou shidai ), which saw itself as a mouthpiece for the Dangwai movement and advocated the right to complete freedom of expression and the democratization of Taiwan. The paper was banned several times by the authorities, but continued to be printed and distributed.

In 1986, Cheng joined the Taiwanese Democratic Party and initiated the "May 19 Green Action," a demonstration against the continuation of the 37 years of martial law in Taiwan. Cheng was arrested and sentenced to prison. After eight months, he was released from custody and, together with Chen Yung-hsing and Lee Sheng-hsiung, founded the Peace Day 28th February movement , the aim of which was to initiate an investigation into the incident of 28 February 1947 and a national memorial day dedicated to it set up.

Cheng Nan-jung advocated Taiwan's independence. On April 18, 1987, in a public speech in Taipei , he said, " My name is Cheng Nan-jung, I support Taiwan's independence ." This simple statement was unheard of in view of the still existing martial law and at the same time the first time that Taiwan's independence had been advocated in a public speech, which is why the phrase later gained a certain fame.

The Democratic Progressive Party , which became the largest opposition party, was close to Cheng, but not joined it.

death

On December 10, 1988, Cheng's magazine printed the " Draft Constitution of the Republic of Taiwan, " a manifesto of the Association for an Independent Taiwan , largely penned by its then chairman Koh Se-kai . Cheng's magazine was subsequently banned again and in January 1989 Cheng was charged with suspicion of sedition and treason. Cheng refused to appear in court and went to his magazine's office, saying that he would never be alive again, and that he would only be arrested as a corpse by the Kuomintang. After 71 days of suspension, during which Cheng did not leave the office building shadowed by the police, the police finally broke into the house on April 7, 1989 to arrest Cheng, whereupon he poured the gasoline provided for the case on himself and himself burned.

Aftermath and evaluation

Cheng's suicide came at a time when Taiwan was in a state of limbo between dictatorship and democratization. The government continued to retaliate against members of the opposition, but gradually relaxed its control. It also happened that Cheng's self-immolation found a relatively large echo in the media, as did the self-immolation of his colleague Chan I-hua on a funeral march dedicated to Cheng Nan-jung on May 19, 1989.

The events surrounding Cheng's death are widely viewed as the last attempt by the Kuomintang state to suppress freedom of expression. Cheng's sympathizers, such as Koh Se-kai or Yao Chia-wen , even consider his self-immolation to be the "watershed of Taiwan's political development". For the Taiwanese democracy movement, Cheng Nan-jung was and is a martyr .

There are also critical voices who question the necessity of his suicide, since democracy and freedom of expression would have come anyway. For example, former President Lee Teng-hui , who was only briefly in office at the time of the events , indicated in retrospect in April 2013 that he did not know whether Cheng's approach was really appropriate.

In 1999, the Cheng Nan jung Foundation was established in the building where Cheng was burned and the Cheng Nan jung Freedom Museum opened in the same location .

In 2012, the southern Taiwanese city of Tainan declared April 7th (the anniversary of Cheng Nan-boy's death) to be Freedom of Expression Day .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Taiwan History Association website
  2. ↑ Taiwan History Association website
  3. ↑ Taiwan History Association website
  4. ↑ New Talk, April 11, 2013 (Chinese)
  5. ^ The Liberty Times, April 19, 2012

Web links

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Cheng is the family name here, Nan-jung is the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Cheng, Nan-young
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nylon, deng; 鄭南榕 (Chinese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Taiwanese publisher and civil rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH September 12, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Taipei , Republic of China (Taiwan)
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1989
Place of death Taipei , Republic of China (Taiwan)